Carlos Guerra: Kingsville pharmacy school funded  by neighboring county

At their regular Wednesday meeting, Nueces County commissioners voted to give $1 million a year for three years to Texas A&M-Kingsville, to help fund the Irma Rangel College of Pharmacy.

The pharmarcy school, the first professional school south of San Antonio, was the brainchild of the late state Rep. Irma Rangel, who succumbed to cancer after the school was approved but before its $15 million building was constructed. The gleaming, state-of-the-art edifice has remained virtually empty, however, because operational funding has been blocked by House Speaker Tom Craddick, who never got along with Rangel, and the school’s opening has been delayed for two years.

Nueces County Judge Terry Shamsie first discussed possible funding by his county several weeks ago, but opposition arose because Kingsville is in neighboring Kleberg County. Shamsie countered that Nueces had invested more than $20 million on Naval Station Ingleside, which is also not in Nueces County, and which is now being closed.

The pharmacy school, he said, would spur regional economic development, and since Corpus Christi is the largest city in the Coastal Bend, it stood to be its greatest benefiary.

Still, the school, currently operating with a skeleton staff, will need another $9 million to open its doors.